The invention relates to a horizontal continuous casting plant, in particular for continuously casting steel, comprising a tundish for accommodating the melt and at least one open ends mould fastened to the tundish, the tundish being placeable into a position in alignment with a stationary strand guideway and removable from this position, together with the mould.
In horizontal continuous casting plants, the mould forms a unit with the tundish (cf. Stahl und Eisen, 101, 1981, "Stand der Entwicklung des Horizontalstranggie ens von Edelstahl bei der Bohler AG"; "Horizontal-Stranggie anlagen zur vollkontinuierlichen Herstellung von Pre bolzen aus Kupfer und Kupferlegierungen" from Metallwissenschaft und Technik, 33rd year of edition, vol. 12) ["State of Development of Horizontal Continuous Casting of Special Steel at Bohler AG"; "Horizontal Continuous Casting Plants for the Fully Continuous Production of Extrusion Billets of Copper and Copper Alloys"]. The tundish to which the mould is fastened mostly is movable or pivotable on rails transversely to the longitudinal axis of the continuous casting plant, so that it is movable together with the mould from outside of the plant into a position in alignment with a stationary strand guideway, or out of this position for the purpose of maintenance or exchange of the vessel and/or the mould.
The extraction of the strand from the mould takes place discontinuously in horizontal continuous casting plants, a step-wise extraction being applied. After each extraction step the strand is pushed back into the mould by a fraction of the length of an extraction step. This working procedure prevents the strand skin from clinging to the mould fastened to the tundish. Hence the problem that the relative movement between the strand and the mould, which prevents the adhesion of the strand skin to the mould wall, does not exactly correspond to the desired course, since the tundish is not sufficiently fixed relative to the base, due to its movability or pivotability. The play occurring at the moving mechanism of the tundish results in a partial co-reciprocation of the tundish. Furthermore, the limited rigidity of the wall of the tundish, to which the mould is fastened, may lead to a partial co-reciprocation of the mould with the strand, so that also for this reason the relative movement between the strand skin and the mould does not exactly have the desired extent during the extraction and pushing back.
The invention aims at avoiding these difficulties and disadvantages, and has as its object to provide a continuous casting plant in which the relative movement between the strand skin and the mould has the exact desired course and extent.